Jan./Feb. Blog-Examine Guided Reading

       This chapter was particularly eyeopening as most of what I do with my Kidwatching group is guided reading.  One thing that stuck out was that students should be placed in mixed-ability groups.  The group that I have, in my opinion, is not a mixed-ability group.  While their abilities vary to a degree, they are all 'low' readers in their classrooms, they all need a lot of support in their reading skills.  They have made improvement, some more than others, and could be more defined as mixed-ability now more than when I started working with them, but I still don't feel like it is enough to be able to say for certain that they are a mixed-ability group.  This is not 'flexible grouping' as the text suggests.
       I do feel as though our text selection has been good.  Our books have come from the literacy room that Mrs. Culbreth has set up.  She has provided wonderful guidance in text selection.  My students responded really well to the graphic novel format.  We have used those and have loved working with them!
       The work schedule we have is not what the text recommends.  We work for 45 minutes once a week.  The text recommends a shorter time frame done multiple times a week.  Due to the schedule of my classes and the class schedule of the classes these students are in, what the text recommends is not a reality for us.
       We have spent a lot of time doing reading related projects in addition to the actual reading portion.  Looking at the text, we need to spend even more time than we have been on reading.  It is so hard to have them write, about a topic we chose from our reading, and not feel as though you, as the teacher, have enough time to conference with each of them.  This could take a few weeks when you are meeting with each student and you only see them once a week.
       I enjoyed the section on modeling behaviors.  I feel like I do some of these well, but overall I need to improve in this area.  The excerpts from reading groups were great examples of how I can apply these behaviors in addition to appropriate strategies and responses I can use in teaching the text.